Reckoning

07.31.11

Senate Kills Reid’s Bill

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All eyes are on whatever President Obama and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell have been working on. The Senate voted down Majority Leader Harry Reid’s debt-ceiling bill, which had already been rejected by the House. Details are still being worked out on the new bill, but it would likely immediately raise the debt ceiling by about $1 trillion while cutting about the same amount, and set up a bipartisan committee that would negotiate another $2 trillion deficit reduction plan in exchange for a second increase in the ceiling. The plan will likely threaten spending cuts to both domestic and defense programs if the committee doesn’t put forward entitlement and tax reform later this year.